


One More Chance

by Silicu (silmil)



Category: One Piece
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Angst, Angst with a Happy Ending, Doflamingo is a manipulative shit, Family, Family Feels, Gen, Major Illness, but it's for Law's own good, ope ope no mi
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-12-11
Updated: 2015-12-11
Packaged: 2018-05-06 03:27:00
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,090
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5401253
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/silmil/pseuds/Silicu
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Trafalgar Law is dying and Doflamingo is nowhere to be found. Maybe it’s for the best.</p>
            </blockquote>





	One More Chance

**Author's Note:**

> To be fair, this feels more like a prologue than an actual story, but I don't know if there will ever be any more written in this verse. I DO like the verse, though, so maybe one day owo

_“Call him.”_

_“I told you, Law, I called him. He’s still busy and he can’t come.”_

When Donquixote Rosinante returns to his brother’s side, he is fully prepared to stab him in the back. He has spent years getting ready for this, convincing himself that Doflamingo was born evil, that there is nothing in his brother worth saving. He expects to find a monster sitting on the throne of a slowly building empire.

He finds his brother.

Doflamingo is still a self-centered spoiled brat. He is still brash and arrogant, he is still resentful and angry.

But, somehow, his sense of self has expanded to include _others_ , now. A group of misfits, each one more messed up than the other, who had come together to turn Doflamingo into something more than he could be alone. A family.

What Rosinante finds, is a brother who is just as self-centered, but the ‘self’ now includes his family. He is just as arrogant, but not only in his own abilities, but in those of his family as well. He is still as resentful, but he holds enough resentment for what had been done to every member of his family, and his anger is their anger made manifest.

He finds a Doflamingo who doesn’t live for himself anymore, but has carved a place in the world for himself, and _let others in it_.

And that Doflamingo lets Rosinante in, embraces him and tells him he had missed him.

Rosinante’s resolve wavers with every day he spends by his brother’s side.

_“It’s been a week, now. Why can’t he get his ass here? He wants it, I know he does, and I’m dying anyway, just tell him to get here and get it over with.”_

_“He’s on a mission, you know how these things get a life of their own once they start. He said he’d be here soon.”_

When Rosinante first speaks to Doflamingo again, after years of silence, it is to apologize. Doflamingo sits there, quietly, listening to him talk about the Marines, about betrayal, about everything Doflamingo _hates_.

But he _speaks_ of it, he doesn’t _do_ it. Doflamingo considers shooting him between the eyes for ever planning on betraying him in the first place. He doesn’t.

Because this is Rosi, and Rosi is family. Doflamingo searches deep within himself, and he finds forgiveness for the last person alive, who shares his blood, who knows his past.

He offers the forgiveness, and Rosinante stands once more by his side, stronger now in his conviction, knowing he belongs there.

He tells the Marines exactly as much as Doflamingo tells him to, and he tells Doflamingo everything.

They’re brothers once more, and all walls that had separated them since _that man_ lost his life at Doflamingo’s hands fall into pieces.

_“How much longer do I have to wait for him?”_

_“As long as it takes, right? You’re not going to die before he gets here, remember? You want it to mean something, you said so yourself!”_

When Trafalgar Law receives the Ope Ope Fruit from Doflamingo, he doesn’t think much about all that entails. He doesn’t think, because he’s in so much pain he can barely remember how to. It has been three years since the brothers swore to cure him, and he has finally found the means. The only problem is he has no idea _what_ to do with them.

Doflamingo leaves on a job the next day. Rosinante stays, and Law likes it that way – he prefers Rosinante, anyway. Doflamingo always reminds him too much of himself, if reflected in a twisted mirror. Too much hate. Rosinante is sweet and kind, and despite his naiveté, Law likes him. He had almost forgotten what it means to be cared for, until he met him.

Law doesn’t know how to treat himself, though, so the fruit is very much wasted in his hands. It’s bitter and disgusting and _useless_ , and he tries not to cry when his one last hope crumbles to dust. He thought he had lost all of it a long time ago. He blames Rosinante for giving it back to him.

He feels like he’s taking his last breath every time he inhales, but he forces his lungs to work and exhales every time. He’s just about ready to give up, when he comes across the immortality surgery, and he knows why Doflamingo gave him this fruit. He’s dying anyway. The least he could do, is to achieve something through this death.

But when he asks Rosinante to bring Doflamingo, the man is _gone_.

Only problem is, Law has already made his decision. He isn’t going to die in vain, he would give this to Doflamingo, and at least he would make sure someone can carry on his hate and bring the world down to its knees.

So he waits. He waits, and the days pass. Some days are barely noticed through the agony of it, his body shutting down bit by bit. Doflamingo is nowhere to be found.

Some days, he manages to sit in bed and read, figuring out how to prolong his life just a little further, how to ensure he would be breathing until the man returns. A month passes and Doflamingo is nowhere to be found.

Rosinante sits by his bedside and encourages him, promises Doflamingo would come back, just _one more day, one more week, just a little longer, you can wait a little longer, can’t you, Law?_

It’s a month and a half after that, when the answer finally falls in Law’s hands. It takes another week, before all of the amber lead is out of his system. He is exhausted and so very tired of being in pain, but he is alive and he isn’t dying anymore.

That’s, naturally, about when Doflamingo comes back, and Law hates him for it. But he had made his mind, and he has no plan on backing out of this.

_“Let’s go, then. The immortality surgery, you want it, right?”_

_“Why would I, you’re not dying anymore, are you?”_

When Law is seventeen, he sits on the Heart throne for the first time. The title of Corazon suits him, Rosinante says from his place beside his brother.

Law has decided that he would not die without giving Doflamingo the last of his life. But until the day where there is no more than a breath left in him, he will sail under their flag and bring havoc to the world that wronged him with his own two hands.


End file.
